Kirby Smart reacts to College Football Playoff snub: 'They're the judge and jury'

For the first time since 2016, Georgia has suffered multiple regular season losses. Ole Miss took down the Bulldogs on Saturday, a huge win for their own program. But for Kirby Smart, it now means his team is on the outside looking in from a College Football Playoff perspective.

Tuesday’s rankings saw Georgia slot in at No. 12, leaving them out of the current projected bracket due to a massive drop-off. Last week saw them as No. 3 and, according to the committee, the Ole Miss loss was worthy of a nine-spot tumble despite a strong strength of schedule and having two top-25 wins on the resume.

Smart gave his reaction to his team’s ranking, saying the CFP committee is ultimately “the judge and the jury.” No matter how coaches, administrators, or fans may feel, they will be the ones making decisions on who gets into the field to compete for a national championship.

“It’s about everything. Because we certainly feel like the strength of our conference is really strong and there’s going to be more and more parity. We’ve seen that this year, [but] what does that equal to in term of the eyes of the committee?” Smart said on Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference.

“Because they’re the judge and the jury in terms of college football and they make the decisions sometimes based on things that we may not agree with, but they’re the ones that are making the decision. So, there will be some decision making [the SEC has] to make depending on how this thing turns out.”

A lot of football is left to be played, including Georgia facing Tennessee on Saturday. If the Bulldogs do win, there could be a clump of two-loss teams in the SEC, including Alabama, Ole Miss, and even Texas A&M, which is a little further down in the CFP rankings. Texas is the highest ranked conference team heading into the week, coming in at No. 3 with one loss.

Depending on how things shake out, the committee’s decisions could play a factor into the SEC’s future scheduling model. Eight conference games are played right now, with discussions of moving to nine.

Smart admits how the SEC winds up faring, in terms of College Football Playoff participation, will be a talking point for future scheduling.

“You’ve gotta figure it’s going to come up,” Smart said. “It’s not the time or place now. But I think Greg Sankey does a great job with out leadership. But he’ll be thinking long and hard about the outcome, it’s a long way from over, but how the outcome comes out of this whole thing.”